Saturday, July 25, 2009

Made a trip to Michael's today. Nothing new in the Halloween aisle, but an employee told us that the truck on Friday will have more seasonal decorations. Can't wait.

I saw some great mason jars being sold pretty cheap on the shelves so I bought three and made witch jars for the tree branches on Halloween night. The handles are made from thin green craft wire. I painted the inside bottom of the jars black and squirt red and brown paint on the interior sides for a soiled effect. Bean suggested frosting the outside of the jars with elmers glue and it came out nice and cloudy. We popped in three clove tea lights from DarkCandles.com and we had three neato keeno Witch Jars for the Corn Witch display. I'll probably make a few more and hang them with my metal lanterns from prior years.

did you dilute the elmers glue when you put it on? or did you just smear it on.when i first was looking at these, i was looking at them on my blackberry. now i got to see them better on my computer. these are really cool!

I remember posting some pics of hanging candle jars a while back where people filled the bottoms with sand and jammed a candle in there. I wanted mine to be dirty like something witches would hang up for light. The red paint was maybe the blood of a small animal or bird that they squeezed in their fists before lighting the flames.

I think an LED would be ok if it were bright enough. I'm a flame guy. Nothing beats the way they flicker or throw off light.

Very cool, aged and earthy. I just got back from Micheals tonight (Monday) they are putting new stuff out and still have lots of boxes in the back. Foam skulls, tombstones, miniture gargolyes, chains, spiders, etc.. They are even putting stuff out on the other side of store. :)

Hey Rot, Very cool prop. I have a question about the clove tealites. I am going to get some from darkcandles. I noticed you have tried the other Halloween type tealites as well, like coffin, graveyard, haunted house and vampire. How would you compare those to the clove scent? I am going to be using these outside and want lots of creepy smell.

BTW, Im not crazy about the scent of cloves, I remember smoking them in my teens a few times and they were nasty. Which might make them a good smell for halloween. Anyways, thanks again, I hope they give you some freebies for sending people to their site.

I think the tea lights are the best bet. Votives need to be in a glass votive holder for them to work effectively...if not, they get a wax canal and a river of wax flows down and shortens the life of the votive. Tea lighs are great because they stay bright for five hours and they have their own clear plastic holder. And they're as bright as a votive, and smell just as strong. And you can squeeze three or four into a jacko for brightness.

Those other scents are just as strong as the clove one. Coffin is a neat moist wood scent. Haunted House is great one too.

Awesome! I've been collecting jars for Halloween for months...I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do w/ them. Now I know! I wonder what it would look like to add coffee grounds to the glue...or just coffee...or a real bug.

I just happily completed my first order w/ DarkCandles.com. I purchased the wax melts of Crypt Moss, Coffin, Haunted House and Graveyard to sample. I make all of my coffins for HauntedHotSauce.com from cedar so I'm looking for a "signature scent" this Halloween...maybe the Coffin scent will do the trick. Thanks for the tip!

Just found your blog today while looking for last minute decorating ideas- can I just say OMG I AM IN LOVE?!?!

I just made three witch jars- had to improvise due to lack of supplies and late hour- but that's how amazing things happen, right? I'm pretty proud of them... no where near your quality, but a great first try.

I used black acrylic paint, a few drops of water, coated the bottom well and blotted the inside of the jar with a paper towel to get the murky, gritty look inside. (No Elmers glue-who doesn't have Elmers?!) To my delight, I found lipstick red scrapbooking alcohol ink that dripped perfectly- bright red and translucent. Jewelry making wire to hang, and we're in business!

What a great blog you have- I can't wait to try something else tomorrow! :)

I'm very anti fake candles .... They just lose the effect. But I made a lantern today because I found led flicker tea lights on a clearance price I couldn't resist and they look incredible in these jars. I can't imagine fake candles anywhere else in my Halloween decor but they looked awesome here hidden by the frosted glass and dirty paint. Love this craft!! Yay!